Page 211 of Stand: Part One

When I glanced back at Jaden, the grin she had on her face was dripping with a familiar triumph I recognized immediately. And it made me want to smack it right off her conniving little face.

“How does it feel?” she abruptly asked. “Knowing your helpless dying mother orchestrated her own assassination so she could frame an innocent family in hopes of freeing you both from your father’s insanity?” She stepped closer and pointed at the note still clinging between Daniel’s fingers. “She did all of that out of LOVE for her children even though it was completely deranged. She inadvertently destroyed multiple families in an attempt to save her sons from becoming the very monsters you allowed your father to turn you into!”

Everyone in the room stayed silent, the air filled with the kind of tension that could suffocate an entire stadium. I could feel Scott’s eyes boring into the back of my head as he watched the unfolding scene. Sloane essentially mirrored his actions. Daniel seemed to be too preoccupied with reading the letter over and over again to hear anything Jaden was saying.

“How long have you known about this?” I asked her pointedly.

She folded her arms across her chest and leaned on her hip. “Not long after you first brought me here.”

Fuck. That long ago?

“Does anyone else know?” Scott asked from behind me.

Jaden eyed him as she slowly shook her head.

Snatching the letter from Daniel’s hand, I marched toward the fireplace behind me, crumpling the letter in my fist.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Daniel asked, his voice hitched.

Turning on the gas fireplace, I tossed the letter into the flames. My hands clutched tightly around the mantel as I watched the last words of my dead mother burn until they were nothing but specks of ash.

And then I forced that very same blaze to incinerate my feelings on the matter with it. I didn’t have time to process the actions of a dead woman. Right now, I needed to protect my family from the potential consequences of those actions.

“Why the hell did you do that? That was from Mom!” Daniel shouted angrily.

Turning back around, I leveled my brother with a reality check. “Because if that letter ever got out to anyone else, the repercussions could be astronomical to our reputation and credibility,” I answered firmly. “Everyone’s world changed because of that war, not just ours. If they knew it had all been based on nothing but complete bullshit created by a delusional dying woman, it would cause chaos everywhere.”

Daniel stayed silent for a moment as his eyes shifted to the floor, finally nodding in understanding. But when my gaze collided with Jaden’s hardened stare, I knew another war of epic proportions was brewing right before my eyes.

More withheld information she had no business knowing, more lies and omissions. The fact that she’d known this long and waited until this exact moment to reveal her little discovery told me she was much more conniving than I’d previously thought. And it made me wonder what else she was secretly hiding from me.

“Does Katherine know?” Daniel suddenly asked Jaden.

Her eyes narrowed as she frowned at him. “She’s always known her family was innocent,” she answered him coldly. “Which is why Darren murdering her nine-year-old sister was so much harder to bear.”

Her gaze then immediately turned back to me, a wrathful fire blazing behind them with so much heat I could feel it warming my skin.

So Katherine had finally found a single vertebra in her glass spine strong enough to reveal the bloodied past she wanted so desperately to change. For the first time ever, a tiny spark of admiration for her had flickered for just a single moment before I quickly snuffed it out.

“Children killing children,” Jaden continued, her voice hard with disdain. “What a world to be raised in.”

I smirked then, relishing the taste of her bait I rarely got to enjoy anymore.

“I was hardly a child then, Jaden,” I reminded her.

She scoffed at my dismissal. “Sixteen is still a child, Darren. Your brain wasn’t even fully developed yet,” she argued. “Which is why it was so easy for your father to mold your squishy little brain into the exact shape he wanted. And now look at you. Your mother died for nothing. She’d be so disappointed in both of you.”

“Shut the fuck up, you little shit!” Daniel scorned. “You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about!”

I could feel my hands curling into tight fists as an inferno of fire rivaling a volcanic eruption burst through my veins.

“Daniel, get out,” I seethed, my eyes seeing nothing but red as I stared back at the gorgeous little demon I had created.

“Why? So you can coddle your bitch of a wife some more?” he retorted bitterly.

“I said get the fuck out!” I roared at him, ready to remove him in pieces if I had to.

Scott quickly stepped up and took Daniel roughly by the shoulders.